Heinrich Himmler was the Reichsführer of the Nazi Party's SS. Being the second most powerful within Nazi Germany, Himmler was the Nazi official who conceived and implemented the Final Solution.
Heinrich Himmler also had a reputation for ardent beliefs in "racial consciousness," however, Himmler was also a man obsessed by medical experiments which he believed could reverse the damage of warfare injuries and for multiple other "justifiable" reasons. Quite a few of these experiments involved the women prisoners of Ravensbrück.
1. The Preservation of Slave Labour
In the Spring of 1942, Heinrich Himmler implemented new harsh directives at Ravensbrück. He wished to extend the use of concentration camp slave labour by increasing the hours of work, making a deal with Siemens (German electrical company) to exploit Ravensbrück women. However, it did not stop there and Ravensbrück women were further exploited through the establishment of brothels in male camps such as Dachau, Mauthausen, Buchenwald and Flossenbürg where the women were to be used as prostitutes.
The use of Ravensbrück women in brothels established in male camps was connected to an idea Himmler had for "reinvigorating" male slave labourers after a visit to Mauthausen where he witnessed emaciated prisoners dying. Therefore, through sex, male prisoners would be encouraged to work better with coupons to visit the brothels.
2. Sulphonamide Experiments
May 27th, 1942, Reinhard Heydrich, the SS-Obergruppenführer and proclaimed protector of Bohemia and Moravia, was assassinated by Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubis, members of the Czech resistance. While the security police where on a blood hunt, particularly against the village of Lidice, Karl Gebhardt (Himmler's top surgeon and the surgeon who attempted to heal Heydrich) was receiving pressure from Adolf Hitler.
For months, German forces were experiencing casualties due to infection of warfare injuries. Most common, being gas gangrene, when shrapnel and debris pierced wounds. This was similar to Hydrich's wound when Jan Kubis threw the bomb that caused shrapnel, glass, upholstery fibres and wire into his spleen. The race to find a "miracle drug" was raging on, especially since the Allies were diminishing casualties with a formulated type of penicillin, and Himmler stepped in, offering healthy concentration camp prisoners.
The first group chosen for human experimentation were male prisoners from Sachsenhausen. The male prisoner's legs were cut open, and different quantities of bacteria were inserted into their legs. A variation of sulphonamide was given to each prisoner, however, the results proved inconclusive.
Maria Kusmierczuk
Jadwiga Dzido
Vladislava Karolewska
Ravenbrück women, also known as "Rabbits," who survived. If you look at their legs, you can see the mutilation that was caused due to Himmler's experiments.
3. "Human Warmth" Experiments
By October 1942, Himmler had grown bored with his sulphonamide experiments. Now, he was infatuated with the idea that sailors and airmen who were exposed to freezing seas were revived by human warmth. He urged Sigmund Rascher to use Ravensbrück prostitutes, having been given four, for his experimental use.
Eight male prisoners were submerged in near-freezing water inside a large tank and left inside until found unconscious. The men were then placed in a bed between two naked Ravensbrück women. The women were to nestle as close as possible under the cover of a blanket.
The men quickly revived, however this experiment wasn't anymore effective than any other form of re-warming. One of the male prisoners subjected to experimentation had a cerebral haemorrhage and died.
4. The Breaking of Bones
Ludwig Stumpfegger, in November, 1942, proposed the experiment of breaking bones to see if they would grow back together. The first new guinea pig was Basia Pietryzyk, a sixteen-year-old Polish dancer. Stumpfegger chiselled bone out of her right and left tibias. Over the course of a few weeks, three different types of operations occurred: bone grafts, bone splinters and bone-breaking. Bone breaking involved the shin bones being smashed by hammers. Other times, the whole fibula or tibia was taken out.
5. Operation on Muscles
First, the muscle was exercised. With each operation, larger parts of the muscle were taken out.
6. Removal of Whole Limbs
In November 1942, bacterial experiments were still being carried out, but a new form of experimentation emerged. Women called the 'lunatics' were subjected to amputation of whole limbs. Victims were murdered on the operating table.
Himmler ordered this experiment of limbs because he wanted Stumpfegger to copy the technique of a Russian doctor who transplanted limbs.
This is part one of a group of articles about medical experiments at Ravensbrück. My next article will be about the Ravensbrück Rabbits, which is mentioned briefly above. My final article for this group will be about the role of the German Red Cross in providing aid to concentration and extermination camp prisoners.
Thank you and I have attached links for further research:
1.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/sulfaexp.html
2.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Karolewska.html
3.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/bonexp.html
4.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/nazi_experiments.html
